Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Climate Change and Environmental Issues new pictures in the news

Pictures of sea creatures in the gulf have now attained polar bear status. I won't look at pictures or video clips of either. They tear my heart out and there's nothing we can do about them. I find it past time that man pay a price for destroying their world.

Is that too nihilistic?

Someone want to talk me back down off the ledge?

Not me, Martha. I saw a couple of those pictures today and I'm out on the ledge with you.

The pics of dirty animals, from last week, were bad - but the ones I saw today, of the birds simply coated in thick sludge -- that's really, really awful.

And I think we WILL pay a high price. I've seen projections -- not predicting where the oil will go (there was a disclaimer) but suggesting possibilities - it showed the oil flowing up the Atlantic coast and then out into the middle of the ocean, forming a huge waste area.

Ocean life was in trouble - serious trouble - before this happened; it's going to get much worse. As a food resource? Maybe forget it so far as the north Atlantic is concerned - possibly for a very long time.

Then remember all those lovely daydreams of humans learning to live on the ocean when the land was gone?

Hah.

Sorry for the downer. I have very little hope of a positive outcome from this mess.

Sorry, Martha...not me either. I'm up there with you and Julia.

I totally agree. If people have to pay back for all they've destroyed, it's going to be a tough, near-impossible road ahead...for a long, long time. But you know, I can't get upset about that part of it...fair is fair.

Me either.
I grew up in the gulf. It breaks my heart.

Btw, the Dawn dish washing liquid ads that are running right now?
Those were filmed before this spill, after the last one where they used Dawn to clean the animals.
<sigh>
It's the gift that keeps on giving, huh?

This may get me a warning letter but I want to hurt the CEO's of BP et al. I really want to hurt them.
I want to because I know deep in my heart that this is going to be the Bhopal of our time, meaning nobody is going to be held accountable.
I want to hurt them because it's clear now that corporations have the same authority as law enforcement or the military, that they can prohibit cameras from public property with the same authority as....authority, because corporations ARE the authorities now.
I want to hurt them because it's clear to me that there are two sets of laws now.
I could dump a thousand barrels of oil in Tony Heyward's living room and get a twenty year sentence in prison, but it is clear to me now that a corporation like BP could set off a disaster that could cause widespread death to people, animals and plants, widespread property damage and lasting damage to the entire planet's habitability and they can walk away scot free.

Hell, for that matter BP could set off a bomb in the middle of the city and get away with it whereas if I say the WORD "bomb" I might never see the light of day again.

There's two sets of laws, and it's clear to me now that corporations, which claim to be people, but have ever so much more rights than I do, have nothing to fear from the simple flesh and blood people, because justice for them will be a tough day in front of a few cameras and a few minor inconveniences.

There's really no such thing as politics anymore, because politicians are a front for a much larger, more powerful and secretive government that we don't have a say in, or vote for or against. It's been made clear to me that even our president is just a puppet, the veneer has worn too thin and we all see the lack of power in both the White House and the Congress.
So what's the point? Let Bozo the Clown get elected, who cares, it's not as if we're going to have any say in it anymore anyway.
Our fate is to be cooked in crude oil and BP will get around to fixing that leak when they're good and ready, and the rest of the world can just stick it if they don't like it, but be careful if you write to the CEO.
You might get served a summons for harassment, and you might do jail time.

But not those guys.

i saw the photos. they are devastating. i just read an ap report regarding oil making it to florida. i read in print so i don't have a link right now but one person cited the book of revelations and the seas turning to blood, and the sea life dying. it was apt since the water looks as though it is full of blood etc. very sad and jeff, i completely understand what you are saying.

At really bleak moments it flits across my mind that a Sara Palin presidency would at least be amusing. Then I dislike myself a lot.

At lunch my friend Tessa reminded me of flowers--well, weeds--growing through her cement driveway and of cockroaches. I took comfort in a weird, twisted way.

I agree with everyone here. The earth's life cycle is interlocked, with each level building on the one below. Water is the common link and we are destroying it and ourselves. Corporations are turning humans in to the "Beast that Eats Itself".

The minimum punishment for BP would, IMO, be lifetime imprisonment for all members of the Board of directors and all major shareholders. The company would then be sold and the monies elicited from said sale would be used to clean the environment, and pay back the US for any money used to stop the gulf oil spill.

I would also make the board of directors work with wildlife rescuers in cleaning the oil and sludge of the affected animals.

I have spent a little time today at TED.com watching talks by ocean photographers and oceanologists. They are passionate about the state of the oceans and some are near desperation as they warn of the huge numbers of big fish lost, the damage to the ocean floor by commercial trawlers.

Some of them end with hope that if fishing is better regulated, if areas are protected, then the ocean can be to some extent self-healing.

All of these stories - of the dangers for ocean species of all kinds - were done before the spill started.

I have a frozen yellowfin tuna steak in the freezer, purchased before I started paying attention. I swear to God every time I think about cooking it I wonder if I shouldn't bury it instead, and I'm only half joking.